exception of those who are known by the name of Baptists, hold the primitive doctrine of infant baptism.

13. The subordinate question of the mode of administering the rite, I pass over as of little consequence. Our own church authorizes baptism by immersion, except where the parents can plead the inability of the infant by reason of health. But baptism by affusion, especially in the colder regions of Christendom, where necessity dictates it, seems quite agreeable to the general goodness of that God, who " will have mercy and not sacrifice." The import of the original word is allowed to be capable of either interpretation. And the greater or less quantity of the emblematical element is considered by most churches, and apparently with good reason, as, under a spiritual dispensation, of subordinate moment.

14. It is important, further, to observe, that all the supposed advantages of baptism in adult years are secured by the primitive and edifying rite of confirmation, which in one form or other is retained, after the example of the apostles, in all the branches of Christ's holy church; when the parents and sponsors resign their charge, and the catechumen, ratifying and confirming his vows, is solemnly admitted, after due examination, by prayer and the imposition of hands, to the profession of his faith in his own name, and all the personal blessings and privileges of the covenant of grace.

15. The minds of the young and unstable are

sometimes disturbed by persons misinterpreting or misapplying our Lord's command, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature ; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." This passage, say they, is clearly against the baptizing of infants; for if believing be a requisite qualification for baptism, as children cannot believe, so ought they not to be baptized. It is surprising that those who reason thus, do not advance a step further still, and contend that as believing is here represented as necessary to salvation, it follows also that, as infants cannot believe, so neither can they be saved. And thus the horrible doctrine of the final perdition of infants is brought in. Arguments that involve such a fearful contradiction of the whole tenor of Scripture must necessarily be false. The truth is, the objectors here introduce into their conclusion an entire class of individuals who were never thought of in their premises. For to what class of heathens and Jews was the Gospel preached at the promulgation of the Gospel? Was it not to adults? And to what heathen, Jews, and Mahommedans now is it still preached? Is it not to adults, i. e. to persons capable of faith or unbelief? And to every one of them we declare, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." The error of applying such texts to infants, is seen at once, when other passages of a similar construction are considered. As an instance,

let us try to apply the argument to the apostolic rule," If any will not work, neither shall he eat." Infants cannot work, therefore neither shall they eat. And yet weak as such an argument is, it is the most plausible one advanced by those who object to the baptism of the children of the faithful.

LECTURE XX.

THE COLOSSIAN CHRISTIANS ACCEPTED WITHOUT LEGAL OBSERVANCES-THEIR ABOLITIONTRIUMPH OF THE CROSS.

COL. ii. 13-17.

THE apostle having cleared the capital question of the access or introduction into the dispensation of the Gospel being without circumcision, proceeds, in the next place, to appeal to the actual experience of the Colossians themselves, and to remind them that they were complete in Christ in this respect, as well as every other, though uncircumcised; "the forgiveness of sins in his blood" having, as he had before more than once shown, laid a firm foundation for all other blessings.

13. And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses.

Thus he applies to their particular case his general doctrine as to the admission, by the grace of Christ alone, into the evangelical covenant. This is exactly what he had done with regard to the doctrine of reconciliation in the first chapter; "And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death."

Ministers should apply their instructions to the individual consciences and hearts of their flocks. They should turn from universal to particular topics; and address their hearers as personally concerned; And you, &c. Otherwise the slippery and treacherous mind of man will elude conviction, and be content with a vague approbation of a truth which ought to enter and pierce the whole soul.

The apostle urges upon the Colossians, in the verse before us, three things: their state by nature ; the divine life communicated to them by Christ; and the remission of sins in his one sacrifice, which was its meritorious source.

He thus shut out the false teachers on all hands. They could pretend to nothing beyond offering an adequate remedy for man's double misery of distance from God, and of guilt. Sanctification and justification included all men could require to eternal salvation. But they could pretend to nothing be

yond.

They did neither of these things. But these, Christ by his fulness of power and grace as the only Mediator, had actually effected for them.

1. Both these great blessings supposed the natural state of man to be deeply known and felt. The apostle, therefore, enforces this point once again in the strongest terms. You being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh-motionless, without knowledge, without feeling, without desire, without care as to spiritual things; dead to God, the author of felicity, ignorant of his being and attributes; dead to his love and worship, dead to his honour and interests in the world; dead to the real love of their fellow-creatures; lost in brutish idolatry, sensuality, cruelty, and alienation of heart from the living and true God. As the lifeless corpse is incapable of any of the affections or acts of the natural life, so the soul "dead in trespasses and sins" to the spiritual. They had been alive enough to sin, to vice, to idolatry, to all the uncleanness and turpitude of a false religion; but as to the true God, and desire of his pardon and grace, and love to him, and prayer, and holy affections, they had been ignorant, insensible, and cold as the grave.

So it is with men now in christian lands; too many are lifeless still. "She that liveth in pleasure," saith our apostle, " is dead while she liveth." And so he that liveth to the world, to the flesh, to self, to pride, to covetousness, to ambition, " is dead"